Merry Christmas from Tanzania

Merry Christmas to All!!!

One word: GORILLAS. Our gorilla trekking in Rwanda was something from a dream. Mountain Gorillas are one of those animals you see on TV, but you can not appreciate what they really are until you sit next to them in the rain forest. Their eyes and hands and hair are so unbelievably real, you want to reach out and touch them. You can sense how powerful they are at such close proximity, yet they are gentle and relaxed. Although, if the silver back moves everybody gets out of his way before you even realize he stood up. We spent two days hiking around extinct volcanoes in search of these magnificent beasts. There were muddy moments, bush whacking moments, and Paula even took a tumble, but in the end it was more than worth it. Our lodge, Sabynyo Silver Back Lodge was just as good as the gorilla watching. It was set up on the mountain and the cabins are each very secluded. Although there is quite a bit of hiking involved just get to your room. The food was excellent. It was like living in a mountain lodge with cozy fires and good food, all the Amarula you can drink, but you don’t have to do anything. All you have to do is figure out what you want, and tell someone. This was some serious pampering my friends! And the weather was so cool it felt good to put a sweater on. The lodge and gorilla trekking was like living in a dream. I never wanted to wake up.

We spent another night in Kegali, and hit another motor biker.... did I forget to mention that already happened....!? Everyone was fine, except for poor Alex who was so frustrated with all the damn motorbikes zooming all over the road. Do NOT self drive through Kegali. Kruger National Park is one thing, the city of Kegali is quite another, this place is worse than NYC.

Somehow we made our way back to Tanzania. Had another two days straight of driving and now we’ve spent four days in Arusha. The traffic in Arusha is bad as well, but it’s junior sized compared Kegali. Alex is a pro. When we drove into town we saw a huge mountain veiled in clouds. Maybe it looks so magnificent because the landscape is nearly flat otherwise. Paula and I were looking at it thinking, that is one gigantic mountain, why did we agree to climb it? Alex says, oh no, that’s Mt. Meru, Kilimanjaro is bigger than that. !!!???!?!?!@**@#$%! That’s what my stomach did.

Again we’ve had good food and some adventures getting around town. Today we visited a small village and then did a game drive in Arusha National Park. The landscape is beautiful here. It’s not that different from Rwanda, very green and lots of banana trees. However the elevation is lower here and so it is HOT. On our game drive we saw giraffes, warthogs, zebras, bushbuck, and my new favorite, flamingos! We also saw baboons and these new cool black monkeys with long white hair. Forgive me, I don’t remember the name. Also, my friend Sarah, we saw Kurt’s Dik Dik. I thought you might appreciate that!

That brings us up to date dear friends. Tomorrow we will leave to start our trek for Mount Kilimanjaro. We are excited and nervous, but mostly excited. I’m not sure exactly how it will feel to climb nearly 6,000 meters but I’m about to find out.

A very warm and wonderful Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family back home. Think of us at 9am on Christmas morning, we’ll be thinking of all of you.

Until next year,

El & Al

Namibia, Botswana, and Victoria Falls

Our last few days in South Africa flew by! We stayed at a guest house/reserve in Cederberg. North of Cape Town along the way to Namibia. The couple that owned the place, called Gecko Tree Lodge, own the Red Leopard Tea company. Apparently, South African Rooibos Tea is the new miracle substance. They spent the last year in LA selling tea and setting up their own store. I told them they need to come to Boulder, it's just the fad for all those health nuts! It was really fun to talk with them and then told us about a nearby tour that we could do the next day. The tour is given by an elderly man and his wife serves her own special ice tea recipe. We saw how they process the tea and refine it down to a substance that is good enough to go into tea bags. It is then shipped in bulk to whole sale distributors. After the tea tour we headed towards Namibia. I was so nervous about the border crossing! I wasn't sure how it would work with the car, I was just praying that we had every little piece of paper they were going to require. We were planning to get to the border really early in the morning when the officials were fresh. Anything to ease the process. But by the time we got to the border it was only 5 pm and we still had plenty of driving time left. So I just said let's do it! All in all the process took about 5 minutes. It was so easy! We had to pay 200 hundred rand for the car, which equates to about $25usd. We were the bumbling tourists, walking up to all the wrong counters looking bewildered. No one was very communicative but they didn't even ask for our paperwork! Done and done! We were in Nambia and it felt so liberating!!!!

We made a quick trip of both Namibia and Botswana. We spent four days in Namibia, driving to see first Fish River Canyon and then Sossuvlei National park. The Sossuvlei are the famous sand dunes in many a film - i.e.. star wars! It was HOT! We would get out of the car and immediately pour sweat. The sand dunes are pretty incredible. This was our Thanksgiving day, and a pretty good one. In the rainy season the dunes will flood with water providing the opportunity for trees to grow. In the dry season the water disappears and the trees can't survive. Dead vlei is an area just where this has occurred, and the dead trees spot the landscape. Another beautiful and unique wonder of South Africa. On our last night in Namibia we stayed in Windhoek. We really wanted to do a tour of the Windhoek brewery, but they were closed for renovations. So we went to the tap room of the new Camelthorn microbrewery. We then ate dinner at Joe's Beer House, a very famous restaurant for all of the different kinds of game they serve. The guilt set in when we ordered a skewer with: Kudu, Zebra, Ostrich, Crocodile, and Chicken. Such good food!

Our arrival in Botswana on November 26th was another smooth transition! We spent our first night in a safari tent at Thakadu Bush camp and then the next day headed for the Okavango Delta. We took a scenic flight over the delta to try to get an idea of the magnitude. We saw elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, and buffalo from the plane. The water is so densely covered in weeds that you can't be certain what is ground and what is water. The next day we headed out for our two day mokoro trip. At this point I have been terrified with the thought of close proximity to both hippos and crocs in the water. I don't know how people do this all the time and don't killed!!! We set out with another couple from New Zealand and six boats for the four of us. We poled through the reeds for a few hours, stopping to look at frogs and lilies. There are so many lilies in the water, they are all so gorgeous. The reeds pass well above your head when you're sitting in that little boat, and sometimes slap you in the face. We saw zero hippos and crocs (thankfully) and reached an island where we set up camp. We did an evening and early morning bush walk. No guns, just two rangers and four tourist walking through the delta. We saw hippos down in a large pond. They grunt and smile and are cool to watch, just keep your distance. We also walked around zebras, giraffes and antelope. It's pretty amazing to see these creatures in the wild. I was so scared, our guide said don't run from anything, but if you have to go up a tree. This is serious sh*t people. We also did a little swimming (it was so hot in the afternoons) in a little naturally cleared pool. We were both so scared we didn't really go very far into the pool. I asked our poler how he knew it was safe, his response "because you can see the bottom". !!!!!! This is outside my comfort zone, but I'm loving it! Our last stop in Botswana is Chobe National park. After another day of driving we arrived in Kasane and were the first people to enter the park at 5:30am. We saw hyenas right away. We drove down to the river front and saw lots of birds, hippos, buffalo, and even a group of the banded mongoose! In the evening we did a river cruise where we drank way too much Windhoek lager but saw crocs, lizards, birds, and elephants! We saw the youngest elephant! It was so small it didn't even come up to it's mother's stomach. Soooo cute!

We were planning to stay one more night in Chobe, we had a couple of days left before we picked up Paula and Jerry at the airport, but we didn't really feel like staying another day in the park so off we went to Livingstone, Zambia. We decided we could find some interesting activities to do around Vic Falls. (That's an understatement!) We got to the border crossing early, Alex had to drive the car onto a rather rickety looking ferry, but handled it like a pro. Then we had a two hour process of walking around a crowded, dirty yard to make sure we had all of our bills and requirements paid for the car. We didn't have any Zambian kwacha so we had to trade for USD with some guy that was just hanging around. I thought it was so shady, but then the police took us to him so... just go with the flow. Our first day in Livingstone we spent a full day of white water rafting. This was such an incredible experience! Also terrifying! We covered 25 rapids in around 6 hours. I've never white water rafted before, but this is supposedly some of the best in the world. We flipped out of the boat three times in the morning. I was terrified what I would do if this happened. Our guide was great, his name is Potato. He would holler out in his African accent before every rapid "if we go out, just stay calm. Don't Panic! You'll come back up." Well he was right, and we survived the best day of the trip so far. Potato also let us swim a couple of the smaller rapids. ("If you see a crocodile, just kick it with your feet!") This all took place on Lizzie's birthday and we got a chance to talk with Ben and Danielle that night! Such a great day. However, I didn't know what was in store for the next day.... We got up early to visit the Devil's pool on Livingstone island atop the falls, before we picked up the rents from the airport. In hindsight I wouldn't have gotten into this pool. I think this is easily the most life threatening thing we've done. The pool is a natural formation made from rock and it literally sits at the edge of the falls. In we went! Alex actually jumped in! The guide said "jump here, not there! If you jump there you'll go out, if you jump there you'll break your feet on the rocks, only jump here!" I did the butt scoots in. The guides took pictures with everyone's camera and then one by one with the guide holding our feet we peeked our heads over the falls. I still imagine myself going right over and have to jerk out of my reverie. Alex really didn't want to peer over, but I made him. I don't think he cared for it. And then he was back in the water, holding on to me and he whispered: "will you marry me?" What!?!?! I was so surprised! We hugged and kissed and the guide rolled his eyes and thinks "here we go again!" All the couples were hugging and kissing, young and old. It was perfect. Although now we had to get out of the water and we had no idea where to swim so that we didn't go right out!

We picked up Paula and Jerry in the afternoon and had hugs and hugs all around! It was so good to see them and tell them our news and catch up on all our stories. We went south the 3km to the Zim side to the town of Victoria Falls. We stayed at a very posh hotel called Ilala Lodge. That afternoon we did a sunset cruise. Paula's red wine blew off the table, luckily it was almost gone but they just brought her another one that she had to drink. We saw hippos smiling and some small antelopes in the woods. The cruise was on the Zambezi river above the falls. Oh the reunion was blissful! (I couldn't stop looking at my ring! Although it's quite modest I look damn good with it on!) The next few days were full of activities. We did a walk with the lions, which is exactly like it sounds. These are amazing animals, to see them run and walk lay around right in front of you is unbelievable. I thought it would be scary, but it really wasn't, just beautiful. We had amazing dinners and wine. We flew over the river and the falls in a helicopter and then one evening we walked along the falls. Stunning views, with rainbows galore. In this moment I feel so lucky and blessed to be here with Alex and his, no my wonderful family. Everything seems right in the world.

On December 7th we left Vic Falls and spent the next four days straight driving through Zambia and then Tanzania. These countries aren't rich, but they are beautiful and the people are beautiful. Everyone is smiling and asking "how's the journey?" Even little kids wave and give us the thumbs up as we drive past. Alex had one amazing driving experience in Tanzania on what was described to us as "a rough road". It rained off and on, it started to get dark, it was so muddy in places, and sometime we couldn't tell which way the road went. It kept juking back and forth due to construction for the new road. We got stuck in some mud and there were several minutes where I was sure we were spending the night in the car, but somehow he got us out. Then we blew a tire, fixed it, and somehow he drove us through. The 250 km took almost seven hours. Yesterday we entered Rwanda. Another beautiful country. The further north we get the greener and more forested the land becomes. Today we're heading to Volcans national park. We'll stay at Sabynyo Silver Back Lodge and spend the next three days in the jungle with mountain gorillas and the golden monkey. Life doesn't get any better than this.

We're thinking of everyone at home, lots of love,

El & Al

South Africa - Part II

The last two weeks in South Africa have lived up to the first two, however they were a completely different experience. Less land mammals and small cute towns, more coast and big cities! After Addo Elephant Park we spent two nights in a coastal town called Wilderness. We are now in the Western Cape region of South Africa. Wilderness is close to Oudtshoorn, which is the ostrich capitol of South Africa. Boy are those giant birds everywhere! We visited the Cango Caves and also a huge market in Sedgefield.

Next we moved on to Cape Agulhas, the Southern most point of Africa. There is an old lighthouse on the point, including museum. It was Elspeth's first time in a lighthouse and she loved it! It is such a charming thing, something from the past.

Cape Agulhas is also said to be the meeting of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. The water here is a beautiful deep blue. It is windy this time of year so the ocean constantly slams against the rocks and sends up huge sprays of water.

Another beautiful spot is Hermanus. This place is said to be the best whale watching spot in the world. We saw dozens of the Southern Right Whale, which congregates in the bay during the month of November to calf. We saw them playing and splashing any time we were near enough to see the ocean. The slap their tails on the water and jump into the air only to belly flop in a huge splash. The town of Hermanus is an endearing seaside village with good restaurants and good shopping! We were hoping to try a turn at cage diving with Great White Sharks, but the day of at 4am we were told it was cancelled due to bad weather. The disappointment was strong, but for Alex it was crushing.

After a week on the coast we were ready to head to wine country, Stellenbosch is the Napa Valley of South Africa. On the way we stopped at Betty's Bay, which is home to a colony of African penguins!

These little guys spend their days waddling around on rocks, sleeping in the sun, and flying through the sea. And, they SMELL! How can something so cute smell so bad? Once in Stellenbosch we planned a full day wine tour. We visited four different wineries and had a delicious lunch.

We roamed the vineyards and drank a lot of wine (good thing we are close to sea level here.) Sarah said that we didn't have to drink all of the wine at each tasting, it's not really the point. Tasting the wine is the point. But, we thought it best not to be wasteful. These American's think that drinking all of the wine is the point. The three of us decided to stay a third day in Stellenbosch.

We did a walking tour of the city, which has burned down a number of times in it's history. This means that most of the original buildings are now gone. There is Dutch influenced architecture. Small white buildings with thatched roofs are quite aesthetic.

On our last day we went to a couple of more wineries, by this time we had already accumulated 4 bottles of wine (they're so affordable) but Alex decided he needed two more. Good thing we have our own car, and two parents on the way to share them with. We also visited a cheetah reserve at the Spier vineyard. We haven't seen one in the wild so the Cheetahs are quite a treat. A number of people were doing "cheetah encounters", which basically means you go into the cage and pet the cheetahs. Even after seeing other tourists do it, I still don't think it sounds like a good idea!

Now it's time for Cape Town! We arrived on 11/11/11, should be able to remember that! Cape Town is quite a nice city on the coast. It reminds me a little of San Francisco. The defining feature is Table Mountain. A flat topped butte smack in the middle of the city. We spent one morning climbing to the top. The trail is composed of switchbacks and rocks and goes straight up.

Once at the top you have an excellent view of the city and the ocean.

There is a finicky cable car that runs to the summit and we were lucky enough to ride it down. We also visited Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. South Africa has an amazing and turbulent history, the affects of which are still noticeable today. Although apartheid was ended in 1994 there is still noticeable segregation of the black and white populations, heavily defined by economic status. While South Africa has amazing natural features and resources it is really important to me to learn about what has taken place to the people of this country with in my life time.

There is nothing like traveling to a country to make the history of a place come alive and feel tangible. Sarah and Elspeth visited the Jewish Museum where an exhibition was in place for a political cartoonist, Zapiro. This man has a talent for turning a simple picture into a strong message.

One day we drove down to the Cape of Good Hope, which is the peninsula South of Cape Town. We've also gone to two movies (Breaking Dawn is undoubtedly the birth of a classic), had a number of nice meals, spent time shopping at the water front, sailed on a sunset cruise, and visited the beautiful beaches of the peninsula.

Oh yeah, and did I mention shark cage diving? The great white is a seriously big fish, with a lot of teeth. We saw several different sharks, all with battle scars and a voracious appetite. They breach the water to feed. Every sighting was truly awesome.

We said goodbye to wonderful Sarah on the 17th and now will spend a couple of extra days in Cape Town so that the car is in tip top shape for the journey ahead. We are off to Namibia, good bye beautiful South Africa!

El & Al

the two lions

South Africa Part 1

We arrived in South Africa to be greeted by our friend Sarah at the international arrivals. She accompanied us back to Life Hotel and had a nice dinner, and some serious planning of our upcoming trip together. The next morning we had a delicious breakfast, Alex had Mince on toast, which is pretty much sloppy joe but more stew flavored. Then we started the hunt for a car and found that it was a lot more complicated than we originally thought; but we met a lovely family that owns a car dealership and they helped us out with everything! The money transfer took the slow boat from China so we decided to rent a car in the meantime in order to not waste the time we had in South Africa.

We got a shiny new red Chevy Spark, which is really small and barely fit us with all our stuff.

Off we went to the northeastern Mpumalanga region heading for Kruger Park. We drove about half way and stopped over in a sleepy village called Dullstroom. This place reminded us of a little Canadian town; it had nice, cute cafes, and shops for beads. We stayed the night and the next morning headed out to Blyde River Canyon.

The canyon is the third largest in the world and had huge carved gorges, but small smooth “potholes” as well. We cruised through snapping pictures and having fun, we even had our first bribery incidences; one involving a corrupt park ranger and the other with a bogus speeding ticket that we had to “pay right there”. Got out of the canyon and rolled into Phalaborwa, which is one of the gate towns for Kruger Park.

At five thirty the next morning we went to the gate and got our tickets squared away and then we were off!

We drove through the gate and within 2 minutes we saw our first Impala, within 4 minutes we saw our first giraffes, and within 10 minutes we saw our first elephant. The park was so beautiful and wondrous that it’s really hard to put into words. We drove over hills and valleys, through dense thicket and scrub lands. The rivers we crossed gave us the opportunity to get out of the car because the bridges are a safer place to get out. Hippos and crocs were relaxing together while Waterbucks were drinking. Amazing wildlife was all around us. The day was spent driving up to the northern camp of Mupani and back down to the central camp of Letaba; we saw Impala, Steinbok, Hippos, Crocodiles, Elephants, Zebra, Giraffes, and Waterbuck, plus a rare endangered Horn Billed bird.

At Letaba we stayed in a nice cozy Safari tent that had four soft beds waiting for us! Quite the first day! Much excitement and so much wildlife!

The next day was just as exciting! We saw a Rhino off in the distance sleeping, and later it walked straight in front of our car! A huge herd of Elephants drinking and grazing, our first Gazelles, and our first Buffalos, plus a weird tall bird that looked like a roadrunner, and other amazing birds like hornbills (Zazu), and warthogs. we ended the night staying in Olifant’s River camp in a round hut for the three of us! Olifant’s is the only camp built on a hill in Kruger and the patio had an amazing view of the forest below; we watched the Giraffes graze as we ate dinner! That night the three of us went on a night drive through the park to see all the nocturnal critters! Springhares, hares, a Genet, and some elephants and hippos were the highlights of the night!

Our last day came sooner that we thought. We got up early again to get a whole day in. Right away we saw a hyena walk right in front of our car and pass within inches of the door. We looped back around to the camp and we found some lionesses that were laying on the tar road.

Turns out that those two lions had seven lion cubs with them! We watched little baby cubs crawl around and walk all over for about an hour! They blocked traffic and ran around exploring together as a small pride. It was really a highlight of the park! Then later on we drove south towards Satara rest camp and came upon some cars. Turns out there was a Leopard right next to the road sleeping in a tree!

We watched him sleep for a while before continuing south. We spent the day driving south towards Pretoriaskop to leave. More Elephants, Giraffes, Rhinos, and loads of Impala later we got out of the gate with only minutes to spare as the sun was setting! Kruger Park was truly an epic experience that we’ll never forget.

Back to Joburg to return the rental and pick up our car after the money transfer went through. We loaded up and headed south to a small town called Parys which is situated in a huge valley that was created by a meteor around 250 million years ago. In the morning we had a little hike around the guest house and then drove the crater’s rim to get a better view. Then onto another small town called Clarens. This place was the picture of small town. Our guest house was called the Blacksmith’s Cottage and was just like snow whites house. Alex wasn’t feeling well the next day so Elspeth and Sarah went on a drive around Golden Gate National Park and did a small hike. Alex scored some tickets to a concert with Elvis Blue, the winner of South Africa Idol, for that night and we all went. The opening act was a pair of guys that played covers, and one guy was a super hippie, but he taught himself to play violin in a local cave he lived in. The locals we all so nice and the drinks were given to us liberally!

On to the Drakensburg mountains, gorgeous views of the whole range of mountains from our hostel. The afternoon was spent drinking and playing banana-grams. We met many couples there from France, Germany, India, and South Africa during dinner. We were convinced to do a hike around the mountains and so we signed up to do a trek the next day at a feature called the Amphitheater. The morning started off cold and really foggy.

The hike was steady but soon turned into us all climbing up a 250 meter gorge to the top. Our legs were burning all the way up and when we summited the view was fantastic. The clouds had burned away and the view was of the whole valley. We later saw the worlds 2nd highest waterfall on our way down, which was really just a trickle down a cliff, but still! Steel ladders were strung down the side of the cliff face which made for an extremely scary descent. The first part was a 9m ladder that wasn’t so bad and then an 18m ladder that went over a cliff that you couldn’t see. The descent was very scary for most but when we got to the bottom we both felt a sense of accomplishment and general badassery!

Driving from Drakensburg to Coffee bay the next day was a long and troubling trip. Fog so thick we had to drive about 15km/hr on a highway, wrong turns and rain made the day really tough. We got in really late (i.e. 9 o’clock) and had to spend the night at a guest house that was “organic” and really into the “hippie” vibe, our room had a bird nest in it and smelled of pot, straw, and cat pee. We left quite early the next morning to escape and got to a hotel on the beach called Hole in the Wall, not because its hidden, but because it’s situated right next to a natural formation called Hole in the Wall that was carved out by water long ago. We went on a hike to see the hole and ended the day watching Whales jumping and playing off the coast! What a treat to watch from the coast as the sun was setting low.

The Nelson Mandela Museum in his home town of Qunu was on the way to Chinsta which was our next stop down the coast. After an amazing visit to the museum Some hostel are really cheap and shabby, this was a mecca for backpackers and travelers. Right on the beach with free activities and great family style dinners. We signed up for a beach horse back ride the next morning, and the ride turned out to be a lot of fun. Running on the beach with the horses and sea breeze in your face was such a great way to spend the morning. We all had different rescued horses that all had their own personalities. Alex’s was the lead horse, while Sarah’s was a follower of Alex’s. Elspeth’s horse was the horse with the worst past and liked to keep near the rear of the pack. We spent the rest of the day driving to Addo Elephant Park, which is a small national park. We did another drive around the park to see Jackals, Zebra and a troop of Elephants that had about 100 females and a bunch of males playing in the water hole. We parked our car and watched the fun/chaos for about an hour. We later saw lions sleeping in the bushes, some Elands and the famous Dung Beetle, two different snakes cross the road and many more birds.

The End of Chapter 1 - Nosy Be

The end of our first month abroad has come, but with a promising chapter two in store. We've spent our last week motorbiking around the island and lounging on the beach, swimming, snorkeling, and reading. We took our motorbike to the top of Mt. Passot, which is one of the highest points on the island and shares some stellar views. You can see nearly three quarters of Nosy Be from its top.

We stayed two nights at a very stylish hotel, easy to remember, it's called "Nosy Be Hotel".

We took a day trip via motor boat to the nearby island, Nosy Komba. We visited a park with chameleons, snakes, lemurs, and of course a plethora of French tourists. In the afternoon we had an amazing picnic lunch at another island, Nosy Tanikely. After lunch we snorkeled.

We saw a lot of very vividly colored fish, corral and gigantic clams.

The last two nights we stayed at the Andilana Beach Hotel. It's a resort that caters specifically to Italians. I never thought I'd be so glad to get back to the densely French speaking population. The hotel was nice, with a private beach and a swimming pool that was filled exactly to the brim so the turquoise water looked more like a clear pond than a pool.But the best thing about the hotel was the 24 hour disney movie channel. We haven't watched TV in a month, except for the news (in French) so we soaked up Hercules, Beauty and the Beast, Madagascar, Aladdin, and even Ice Age 3 (even though that is a terrible movie)! It didn't matter that they were all dubbed in Italian.

Tomorrow night we will fly back to Tana for one night and then we'll be off to South Africa! We're planning to meet up with my friend Sarah. If you haven't heard about Sarah, she's the awesome travel mate I found in Thailand last year. We travelled together for two weeks, visiting Bangkok, and then the Southern and very beautiful beaches and islands. Sarah is from Holland and when she heard that Alex and I were planning to be in Africa she couldn't say no to the temptation of coming along. We'll be meeting in Joburg and then head to Kruger National Park next weekend. After that we plan to drive the Garden Route all the way to Cape town. We'll spend the next four weeks in South Africa with Sarah. Stay tuned to hear of our continuing adventures!

Your very tan adventurers,

El and Al

Northern Madagascar

I'll start by saying I have discovered where the mosquitos live in Madagascar. In the North. Good thing I'm taking those anti-malarial pills every morning. So we have moved on to the next adventure in Madagascar! We left Toliera on October 2, this city is in the Southern region of Madagascar on the Western Coast. We (stupidly) decided to show up to the airport 4 hours early. It's better than being late, but we were so early that they hadn't unlocked the airport yet. Apparently there's only one flight every few days. So we had to wait on the steps outside with all of our baggage. To make up for it when we boarded the plane we were surprised to find that we were flying first class. Don't know how that happened, but it was Nice! (Alex sat next to a nursing mother the whole flight - good times!) When we arrived in Tana our faithful guide Jimmy was there to meet us! We had a lovely homecoming at Karthala guest house and went out to dinner with Jimmy. My favorite part was when Jimmy commented, "Elspeth, do you remember the day you had double lunch?" I do remember that, it was a good day. On the third we left Tana once more, this time to head to the beach. We arrived in Diego Suarez in mid-afternoon. We found a cheap hotel, Fian-tsilaka. We ended up staying there for five days. Everything in town closes between noon and three everyday so it's a good excuse to go back to the hotel and take a nap.

We did this on Monday and Tuesday but by Wednesday we were more than ready for an outing. We hired a guide and quad bike and headed to Ramena to see the three bays. The water was clear and cool and the beaches almost vacant. We saw a sea turtle and some abandoned French canons from an old fort. We also saw two light houses and in the distance to the North we could see the glowing Emerald Sea. The quad was a blast!

The day after our quad tour we took a fishing boat to the Emerald Sea. We were paired with a French couple on their honeymoon. Very sweet and very in love. Thankfully they speak more English than any other French person we've run into so far. He is Pierre, she is Geraldine. Our boatman cooked us fresh fish and crab. We snorkeled on the sea. Lots of brightly colored fish and coral. We had one last day in Diego Suarez before we headed South to Ankify and then Nosy Be. We weren't sure what we wanted to do, but as we walked past the motorbike rental agency there was a little scooter out front calling our name. Ten minutes later it was ours for the day.

I told Alex to maybe ride it around the block before I hopped on behind him. The first thing he did was run it up onto the side walk across the street. The owner looked like he wasn't sure he would get the scooter back in one piece at the end of the day. Everyone else stopped to stare. When Alex got back from his warm up I was a little nervous that we also wouldn't be in one piece by the end of the day. But, what the hell did we come for if not for a little adventure?? On I got and off we went. Turns out Alex is a very good motor bike driver (not as good as me, but I've never driven with someone else on the back so the day was his!) We planned our 20km scoot to Ramena, and the beach! Ten minutes later it started raining. We checked email. We played banana-grams at the hotel. We went to lunch. It stopped raining. We drove 3km. It started raining! We turned back. We checked email. It stopped raining and the sun came out! Off we zoomed to Ramena. We swam and walked along the beach for a few hours and headed back. It turned out to be an awesome afternoon.

Alex says since I told the embarrassing story about him and the motor bike that I have to tell an embarrassing story about myself. I pooped the bed. (Just like my favorite "Always Sunny in Philly" episode). We decided to drop some coin on a nice dinner at this very nice hotel. I ordered poisson - because I am learning French I know that this is fish. No surprises. Wrong! Surprise - I ordered cold fish soup. It was actually pretty good, but it gave me "bad stomach problems" as Jimmy would say.

Finally Saturday arrived with our departure from Diego Suarez. We hired a car to drive us to Ankify with a stop on the way at Red Tsingy, another amazing park.

Red Tsingy is formed by the way the rain and water run off erodes the sand into ridges. It is really quite amazing to see, an impressive natural phenomenon. Really interesting to go there since it was only discovered about 10 years ago and, only made into a national park two years ago.

On the way out we crossed our French honeymooners. This was a quick stop and then several hours in the car headed South West. The road was paved, but cluttered with pot holes. A lot of swerving and quick breaking followed by high speed acceleration. We stayed the night in Ankify at a very nice place called Le Baobab hotel. We were one of two couples, the place was empty. We stayed in the #1 bungalow right on the beach. It was really nice after our drab digs in Diego.

This morning we hopped a speed boat and arrived in Nosy Be. This is the number one tourist destination in Madagascar. It is a small island off the North coast. We will stay two nights in Helle-Ville, the main town off the port. (If you can call 20 square feet of concrete a port.) Our hotel is called Le Plantation. It is very nice and the rooms are open and airy. Helle-Ville is actually one of the nicer towns we've stayed in, though you wouldn't know by the name. It's Sunday so everything once again is closed. Good excuse to sit back and enjoy the cozy bar at the front of the hotel.

Norhtern Madagascar is very beautiful. It looks much different than Central and Western Madagascar where we spent the first part of our trip. The land is covered in green here. One of the main things the locals do is burn the land so that new growth can spring up for the Zebu to eat. As a result the Malagasy have burned 85% of their forests according to two of our guides. We are happy to be in the relaxing portion of our trip here.

Fatselamana to all our friends back home,

El & Al

Salama from Madagascar!

The African journey has begun! We spent one night in Johannesburg, South Africa. The taxi driver that took us to "Life Hotel" said something that has stuck in my mind. He said "in South Africa everything is sweet. We eat sweet, we sleep sweet, we love sweet. Everything is sweet." I'm so excited to come back to this country.

We arrive in Antananarivo (or Tana) in the early afternoon. We are exhausted and realize we have to pay $130 for our Visa's. As a US citizen your visa is free if you stay in Madagascar for 30 days or less. We are staying 33 days. Woops! Overall the two days of travel was pretty smooth. This being our only hiccup. We drive from the airport to our guest house, Karthala.

Immediately, I'm thinking that Tana is not what I was expecting. This is a very poor country. Lonely Planet says that there are people out on the streets all the time. What it didn't say is that the city is overpopulated, and poverty stricken. It was a sad place to see at the very start of our trip. At Karthala we met the owner, a woman who teaches at the universtiy and her sister who now lives in Germany; very nice women with lots to share and talk about. The best thing about Karthala: they introduced us to Jimmy. We spent two nights at Karthala in Tana and we were ready to leave when we did!

Jimmy is an independent Malagasy tour guide. He's 31, is married with one son, and has a great sense of humor. He takes a lot of care in his work and is very eager to share all of his knowledge of Madagascar with us. For instance, the scientific names of the six boabab species in Madagascar (which now I do not recall). He met us at Karthala guest house and we planned the next two weeks of our time in Madagascar.

The trip we planned with Jimmy was to be 15 days of fun! We started out and drove to a town called Anstirabe, which is south of Tana. This may be the nicest city that we have yet seen. It is in the "highlands" of Madagascar and so is nice and cool. The next day we drove to a small little town called Miandrivazo. We stayed the night here in a little hotel called "Pirogue" which is French for Lakana, which is Malagasy for canoe. This little town was to be the start of our three day river trip down the Tsiribihina River. We camped for two nights and floated and paddled for three. Turns out Jimmy is a fine chef as well as educated guide. He cooked fresh fish for us, wild duck, and fresh chickens. And when I say fresh, I mean fresh. He brought them live and killed them on the second night. Good thing we aren't vegetarians! We saw brown lemurs coming out of the mountains to drink from the river. We also saw several chameleons, and yes, a large crocodile. I was a little bit terrified of the crocodile prospect, but Jimmy said, "we find crocodiles, they don't find us." We also saw several baby crocodiles sunning themselves on rocks and branches. Apparently, if you see a baby crocodile you can be sure that the very large mother is resting somewhere nearby beneath the surface. It actually turned out that the crocodile searching was one of my favorite things. We would float along with two or three other lakanas (filled with French tourists) and the guides and river boat men (ie. the paddlers) would be singing and chatting/flirting with women we passed on the banks. But when we would come upon places that were opportunistic for croc spotting everyone would grow very quiet and then point and whisper "there! there! do you see it!?"

After the river trip we headed for Tsingy national park. I hadn't heard about this place before we started doing research for this trip, but it is truly amazing. (Google it now!) It is an incredibly interesting landscape formed by ancient coral reef that lived when Madagascar was covered by ocean. It is a spiky rooftop of black rock above and deep and shallow caves below. We spend a full eight hours climbing to the top for a view of the park, and spelunking underneath, and then another view at the top. The first ascent was straight up the side of the rock. We were cabled in with climbing harnesses, but I kind of lost it. There were steps carved into the stone and chunks of rock bolted to it as well. The steps were secure but the heights were too much for me! I kept thinking of my dad. I knew he would hate this as much as I did. Finally at the top we were rewarded with an amazing view, but I just cried. Alex was concerned, for me but also that our day in Tsingy might be done. However, I wanted to whole experience as much as he did so we kept on. We spent several hours after our descent underneath the rock crossing crevices without bottoms and climbing ropes up into tiny spaces. Overall it was an amazing day. We saw the giant jumping rat, and on our way out of the park we saw the beautiful Deckens Sifaka. A large white lemur like creature.

We also had the good chance of spotting a small nocturnal lemur, he was poking his head out of a tree keeping watch while his mate slept. We also saw a bird that meowed like a cat, and a small owl sleeping in a tree. It was an unforgettable day! Jimmy says we are lucky, because we are happy and easy going, always happy. After our long day at Tsingy we took a dip in the pool at our hotel, and then went out with Jimmy for dinner and got Mamu on local rum. (Mamu = drunk). The bad part of this trip is that the road to and from Tsingy is a painful drive, and it's worse on the way out, especially semi-hungover. Our 4x4 doesn't do AC, and the road is red dust. They can't put in a permanent road because it will just be washed away in the wet season. The road is bumpy and takes an excruciating four hours.

After Tsingy we do a quick one night in the coastal city of Morondava. Along the way we stopped to see the Avenue de Baobab at sunset. We also saw the sacred Baobab (which is 600 hundred years old), and the loving Baobab, which is the only tree like it in the whole world. As the sunsets the Baobabs make a picture perfect scene. A gaggle of tourists gather to shoot their pics and take in the sight. This was one of the moments of the trip where I felt like I was getting just what I had hoped for.

After Morondava we spent a long day driving back to Antsirabe so we could start to make our way South to visit Ranomafana and Isalo national parks. This was where we had to say goodbye to Jimmy. He has become a real friend and I missed him before we left. However, he was with us for ten days and it was time for him to go home and see his wife and son.

Ranomafana is a rain forest. It was set up as a National Park in the 80s because the Golden Bamboo Lemur was discovered there. We did a night walk where we spotted many chameleons and even the smallest of the lemurs, the mouse lemur. It resembles a gerbil but with better digits.

The next day we hiked through the forest to waterfalls and pools, and yes, of course we happened to sight the rare Golden Bamboo Lemur. Lucky again! That afternoon after the hike Alex and I went back to our very quaint bungalow and drank punch (pronounced "poonch" by Jimmy) an

d ate cookies. Overall, a very good day.

Back in the car to Isalo national park. On the way we stopped at Anja park, which is a reserve set up for ring tailed lemurs. This was the first chance we'd had to see ring tailed lemurs, and we were rewarded. They were everywhere! And, it's baby season. Every other lemur had a tiny little baby wrapped around her middle. I think I took 300 pictures just here! The lemurs were all very close and all around, which was fun to see so close. They were so amazing to watch! Definitely a highlight!

Isalo park was much different than any we'd seen so far. It actually looked somewhat like Colorado, with red mountains, and a much drier climate. However, the one thing Isalo does have that Colorado doesn't are naturally made swimming pools, fed by waterfalls. We swam twice on our 13 km hike. We also saw the ring tailed lemur and the red fronted brown lemur, which the latter turns our to be a little picnic basket thief. After the hike, more "poonch" and cookies. It doesn't sound good, but is a tantalizing combo. Oh, I forgot to mention that this punch is rum punch flavored with your favorite fruit and comes from Nosy Be, in the North. (We'll be heading that way next....)

Today we arrived in Toleira, which is on the Western coast but not really worth the stop. The beach is trashed and not safe to go out at night. But our hotel is nice and we have time to enjoy the wifi. We've been going, going, going, for the last fourteen days so it's nice to sit and enjoy a beer and a nice dinner. The staple food is Zebu steak and frites. (Zebu is the Malagasy cow). Although all of the menus are in French, so if you don't order Zebu you are ordering a surprise. Tomorrow we are off to the North to enjoy more national parks, and the beaches.

Thinking of you all,

El and Al

Goodbye USA!

Hello faithful followers!

You can tell already how committed I am to this blog! I am promising as many updates for you all as I can stand.

Tomorrow is our departure day! We'll fly from DIA to Washington DC, then over the Atlantic to Dakar, and then our final destination is Johannesburg in South Africa. We'll arrive in Joburg on the 15th in the evening. Then we get up on the sixteenth and fly straight away to Antananarivo, Madagascar. I'll post some pics when we get there! Think good thoughts for us and wish us safe travels!

Au revoir USA!

Signing out from the inn at HPW,

El

First Stop: Madagascar

Alex and I are getting ready for our departure on September 14th. We'll be flying first to Madagascar. Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDmcxisClX4

All I can think is, this is going to be the best adventure of my life!